##VIDEO ID:HFK1c5DuvEM## okay we are now recording just H hi folks this is the Amorous energy and climate action committee and in my usual introduction I'll say that eak was organized to guide the town in meeting its climate mitigation and resilience goals those goals and the plan for getting there uh are adopted from the climate action adaptation and resilience plan or the cart which was accepted by the Town Council in 2021 it takes 2016 as a base year and call for a 25% reduction in carbon emissions by next year 50% by 2030 and neutrality by 2050 so this committee has two primary functions one is to advise the council the Town Council and recommend uh or propose policies and actions that'll help us meet the climate goals and the other is to promote adjust Equitable and Speedy climate response through Outreach and engagement of town and local stakeholders so with that uh we need a note taker for today and we can get started on the agenda let's see where are we Don did it last time so uh don Tony you w to give it a try this time I can do that excuse me okay so with that um first thing on the agenda is always to review last week's minutes Lori do you want me to share my screen um let me go ahead and do it if I may because this has been a very hectic week for those of us who teach at UMass uh so I haven't had a chance to really review them as thoroughly as I would have liked so I want to uh here they are I just want to make sure I share the right screen here EAC minutes share okay there we go and that way by doing it myself I can maybe page a little more slowly through um all right can you all see that tendance looks right yes you're all set okay so the only I did notice at the beginning here uh golden reviewed a draft report that she prepared golden discussed how we should structure the report I I not quite that much of a dictator maybe uh Golder um you know that that uh maybe suggest a structure for the report if that's okay with everybody sounds a little bit like I you know said we are going to do it this way didn't I just think I was saying what I thought how I thought maybe we should try it so if we can just change that to something like yeah I've got a note okay good and then going down a little farther I didn't quite get to finish through this didn't have a lot of um updates we did have a lot of well we had a lot of updates from Stephanie um anyone have any other comments on here this week we're going to try to get to town manager goals and today we also have starting at 6:30 a Valley Green energy information session other comments there's a typo on number 10 I'll fix it recycling recycling yeah right we were going to um and if we don't get to that today for about lack of time we'll put that off till next week I don't know if uh well we'll find out later if we have [Music] time anyone want to suggest accepting the minutes with those changes make a motion I will move to accept the minutes with the minor edit Stephanie mentioned in item 10 oh and edit that that you mentioned Lori too up here yeah I'll [Music] second okay and I'll stop sharing thank you so in no particular order Allison yes rof yes goldner yes ising yes Mel yes okay okay with that we are on to the second uh item on agenda which is always public comment so we have one attendee Melissa do you have a comment for us if so raise your hand and Stephanie will let you into the meeting and the Hand rais thing is always right at the bottom of your screen I hope at the bottom of your Zoom screen all right if not then we go on to our agenda so we have a number of things that we keep on the agenda as sort of stuff we're looking for updates periodic updates on we don't always have updates on all of them um but occasionally we get a lot of interesting interesting action so um first thing is on Pace um Don I have none no uh Tony coordination with local groups give me one second um I would like to bring up the idea of sending out the Elevate uh events calendar and newsletters to eak um often times they discuss um energy transition work related to ammer specific um sometimes it's you Mass specific campus but I think one of the first steps to getting that bridge connected is allowing um both groups to un like meet at the same events with the same intention for those events which is to understand how we can keep advancing energy equity and energy in ammer um so that's all I have is just that nod to see if you guys would be okay with receiving um it's usually once a month that Aaron Baker sends it out um just like a list of events happening in the community on campus regarding energy transition I think that would be great and um I want to discuss this a little bit more but I want to apologize because I was on the wrong page in my notes and looking at last week's agenda and this week's agenda had us working on the annual report first so we're going to finish this discussion Tony and then we're going to go back to the annual report that is why I needed a minute I was like this corres what I have so no it's okay yeah my apologies there so um yeah so I get a lot of these announcements and I actually have been forwarding to to my class recently um so I think this would be great um what else is it just a matter of saying okay and sending on that information to EAC members or or should is there anything else should be doing that's all I was interested in to start I feel like once we get that kind of established we can build upon it um if that time comes yep I think that would be great I think that would be um yeah then after this meeting I'll send um what I have to Stephanie and then have Stephanie send it to the rest of you okay cool that would be that would be great Tony awesome thank you for suggesting that there's always a lot of interesting stuff going on on campus and we do occasionally you know people send stuff around they get something and they tend to to pass it on but this would be a little more putting us on a list so that we all get it yeah okay so I'm sorry let's go back to the annual report then we'll come back to so we got as far as coordination with local groups we'll come back to 6C later right now we're going to go to the annual report and then to the block party so the annual report um we're on a sort of compressed schedule today because of uh the presentation at 6:30 um and let's see where did the annual report go I just had it up there it is okay let me go ahead and share this um oh no that's not what I wanted to do share screen anual report share okay let make this a little bit bigger can you see the annual report now and I think this is the right version yeah Stephanie I just accepted all of your changes that's all I had time to do no worries I didn't even finish reading it I'm afraid but um let me go ahead and uh just make the view a little bit bigger what that made it smaller how strange um because probably I have the comments showing how do I tell the comments to go away um let me just make it bigger hang I don't want to see the comments don't know why I think at the bottom right you should be able to right right more next right I see okay that'll make this text bigger that's too big that's too big hang on um that's probably way to do it though let me go back over to um sorry it got messed up now uh no it isn't actually messed up it's actually okay let me just make my window a little smaller so this fits on my screen why is it giving me this comment space which I don't really want and not there we go um no but then I can't edit it so this one all right that's ridiculous what did they do the word it usually works um page width that doesn't work okay let's just make it bigger there we go okay I think that's can you guys see that yes I read see it okay I'm just gonna leave it then because whatever I do seems to make it worse um wait a minute one more it's still not doing what I want it to do let's just try making a little bit bigger because honestly it's a little small for me there we go that's what I want and I'll make this bigger and we're there okay good so um the first part of this was just in the way of intro and uh Stephanie had some suggestions to make there that I think are in here now yes they are um reminding you that what we are required to report on on in the annual report are these five things progress toward climate action goals measures taken to reduce emissions and build resilience evaluation of the effectiveness of these measures and implementation of the measures the funding needed to enable the measures uh the initiatives recommended by EAC and Community engagement and four we had a little trouble with um and one we didn't really complete and I think probably Stephanie and I can complete that because one is uh the all of the ecat goals so you remember I had a big table at the bottom it's now sort of been broken out but um there actually it's still a table I guess the lines went away as all okay there are all of these different goals embedded in the carp in the climate action plan right and I think Stephanie you and I should just go through those and I think you did a little bit we can go through those and just you know put check marks or figure out some way of indicating things that are underway or that are done um or that need to be done um but I think going back up here last time I put together a bunch of things that we've done in the last cycle in the last year and we had a little bit of discussion around that just a little and then all the different inventories that have been now put in place mostly by summer interns with the Stephan to evaluate the effectiveness and to document the implementation of these measures then we didn't really know what to say about funding and I think that's something maybe for Stephanie to to fill in more than us um but I do think we should talk about what we think is important to do next it's it's a little bit I I apologize that I haven't had enough time to think about this so I think we're going to have to do at least one more week on this it's just been a very hectic couple of weeks for me and I think for some of us um but I would like to talk about what do we think we should be asking for Town manager goals what are the you know top two or three things just a few things that we really think the town manager should be focusing on there are a lot of things we could put in there but I think we should focus on what we think the big things are that we want to suggest the Town Council ask for discuss and and step what you think you need from the town C from the uh Town manager I have a question yeah Tony go ahead and you provide some examples of things you've asked for in the past I can bring up last year's um report give me a moment do you have it there um actually I have the I have the let's not bring up the report let's bring bring up the executive summary that I that I did give me a minute and I will get it up I have to find it and import okay where is it there it is and I'll just make sure I have the right one annual report enough I think that's it so this had whoops that's not the final minute there it is and Report EA final so what I will do now is um share this instead stop share and let me just Town manager goals we had we had five sort of there were more in the report and I sort of narrowed them to five uh I think it was five general categories of things so let me um share this okay can you see that now to reach 2025 Town manager goals at the top yeah yep so there was the acceleration of the level of support for the Department of sustainability and we could just start with these and then edit right I don't think that would be a bad way to go um because we still haven't acceler accelerated the level of support for Department of sustainability I think right Stephanie we're still hoping to get you another to get you a higher it's not going to happen in this year and yeah if you wanted to try to continue to request it for the next fiscal year sure I think that would be a reasonable thing to do even if we think we can't get it we should put it in and that's also the biggest economic ask right if we're gonna this is the biggest thing we need if we're going to do the things in the in the carp the town needs more people to do it right needs somebody to work with Stephanie so I would say that's probably still the number one thing but I'm interested in what everybody else thinks um in regards to building energy oppos a town manager take a more active role in promoting efficient energy retrofits this turned out to be a mistake um there still really isn't I looked this up again recently at the time time this a year ago in June there was a big announcement or actually I think it was a year ago in February there was a big announcement about a climate Bank going in and I think it's now there uh but the last time I looked it up it still didn't look like something we could very easily access so it's Lori I I just have a little tiny little piece of information because I had a meeting just before this one um in which they were reviewing information about um Mass Save and also about the climate bank and it sounds like the climate Bank helps to fund things that Mass Save doesn't necessarily cover I think this is only one example but for instance spray foam insulation so if there is a household that requires spray foam insulation Mass safe doesn't cover that but the climate Bank funding would so there's other examples but that's just one really quick one to sort of put it into context of the kinds of things they're funding and is that at the state level the consum directly to the state through Mass Save okay fine so then we don't it's not something that we would have to worry about yeah no and I don't think it's through Mass Save I think it's it's a separate it's its own program it's not a mass save like you wouldn't I don't think you go through Mass Save to request clate Mass housing I think it's through the housing department but there are other things like promoting the PACE program you know the PACE program in theory should pay for retro fits and and energy Trans Energy transition for you know a big rental unit or business or um you know a big some some sort of local business right um and we have we still don't have a local Pace example there it's not an easy um it wasn't I think it still isn't a particularly easy program to access but it's a very important program for transitioning businesses so do we want to keep pushing that um the RFP for the heat pump program happened Lor sorry I just quickly have my hand up and I just wanted to say something really quick about that only that um you know with the with the um Advent of the heat pump program our Consultants ET will really be focusing on residences but there's an opportunity um where we can direct small businesses to them and we can encourage information you know with them pursuing information about the PACE program so that's something where ecac can sort of maybe help with more direct Outreach to small businesses while the residential piece is happening that might be something you all could support I'm just throwing that out there as an idea because it came in my head and I don't want it to go away so right that's that's really good I'm gonna do something here because I want to get these things down in here uh I'm going to make this uh for 2025 notes uh Town manager goals and I'm just going to start editing this document so um okay good so this could all be part of uh do we still want to ask the town manager to be more active in the heat pump program and in particular is do we want to put anything in there I would just say utilizing you all as a resource I mean do think that's something that you know I mean yes you suggest policy but you know also utilizing you as a resource for the community members as well and I think that like that example that I just gave you would be a great opportunity so can you say that again as a resource I'll try um yeah um utilizing ecac as a resource to help promote Pace with small business heat pump conversions okay that's not bad it sounds like an ecat goal more than a well but it's but I think it's recognizing you all as a resource so that's I think the point that I'm trying to make is like you know let's let's ask this committee specifically for help on this particular initiative particularly in light of the new heat pump program right right exactly particularly there we go um and then here so one we could essentially keep pretty much as it is two could become something like like this I think froze my internet connection is unstable oh if I disappear that's why um so I guess kind of my Outlook on this is so so you know last year or this previous year you know we've established the heat pump program the CCA is going into effect I guess what do we want from the town manager to continue to you know build on that momentum I guess like how like how do we kind of make sure like the town is engaged and and should that be a responsibility of the Town manager of some sort do they have a role in that now that you you know we you know it's it's going into effect um what's the continued uh actions from the town manager that we need to keep the momentum after CA and that's a really good question after the CC heat pump program how about well okay it's almost like continued promote and this is kind of very vague but you know continued promotion and opt in uh promotion of of the CCA and support it's supporting you know residents opting in what have you so I don't know if that's a that's a goal it is because the sorry I'm sorry I'm jumping in but just to answer your question it is a goal because there are residents who have already chosen alternative um electricity supplier and so those are the folks that aren't automatically opted in and if we want to sort of reach those people there's really no easy way and it's not easy to identify them either so there we want there to be some concerted effort to identify who they are and I know um I've identified this with our local our partner local energy Advocates as you know something that they could be really supportive with and again you know this is something that the ecac could support as well and sort of we'd asked that Town well again but we asked the town manager to allow you know to sort of make this a priority and the use of your time as a committee to sort of work on these things as well okay so in regards to Regional issues we ask that you engage ecac to help find ways to reach out to community members who have opted out of the eversource basic service or Valley Green eversource Valley Green energy they didn't opt out of Valley Green energy they so we don't want to say they opted out of Valley Green energy they're just they have they've chosen a private another an alternative electricity supplier opted out as a bad right who have chosen an alternative uh energy supplier um wait what did that what did I say there where' it go where' it go ask you engage EAC to find ways to reach out to community members who have chosen an alternative in regards to the CCA how about that just say Regional issues oh you can't de find ways to reach out to UN members Alternative Energy supplier to find ways to inform and encourage them to participate in CCA Valley Green energy how about that does that work um for transportation I have a an ask which is I really would like to we never finished the transportation plan did we we don't have a completed Transportation plan right did it ever get I mean and this i' almost like to coordinate with Tac on this one has anybody been going to those T meetings I've been to a few I haven't been in the fall I'm actually going to one on Thursday they've invited me to talk about um Bike Share but I but they also invited me to speak on other issues so if there's something you would like me to bring can you identify that I I I'd like to find out what the state of the you know if the town ever accepted a plan if there is a bike you know an actual Transportation plan for the town um and if not would they like to you know go in with us on asking that to be a priority for the manager for the town manager for the next year right because I think that is really important um you know they're they're doing the streets in my neighborhood this week and putting in nice sidewalks that go nowhere because they connect to pelum road which is dangerous as ever it's ever been it's terrible to bike in to bike on and sidewalks are horrible and it's uh you know it's a bit of a nightmare um so I think I think I think that you know I'd love to see that plan in place and at least slowly being implemented last I knew it was never finalized it was never completed I will bring that to the meeting on Thursday so I'll make a note here can we coordinate with Tac on an Ask uh perhaps to complete the transportation plan or start implementing it in meaningful ways implementing it as you know as fast as possible um and I I would like to say to you that Tony because you're the liazon to that committee do you want to come too and you can speak to it I mean I can talk about Valley Green energy and um and Valley Bike but if you want to come I could just recognize you as being there as well to speak on this issue I just want to give you the opportunity I don't want to jump on your toes either no I appreciate that I'm actually leaving the state tomorrow so okay glad that you will be there um I was a little worried that no one would make it so thank you for that [Music] sure uh do we need to leave anything in about DC charging stations anything more on the horizon there the two um still working on coordinating getting them in okay so maybe we should just leave that out for next year and come back to it again after those are in since that's coming yes so that that's something that this uh so Stephanie will report back on this and we'll we'll talk about that um in the regional issues we had prioritized implementation of the CCA okay that was last year we just did that okay so we just we just fixed this one should we do a followup on the specialized code to find out how that's doing or is that should we just leave that b and just get that that's something we could just do just get a I'm sort of curious as to how implementation of the specialized code is going but I don't think there's a ask there right and this last one is also sort of a generic that we could almost leave in any year which is that you know we need to keep how do you feel this has gone this year Stephanie this is really about involving you in many different aspects of the town's uh decision making right um well I don't know specifically about involving me as involving climate as a lens and as I mentioned certainly with capital purchases that is true and I would say that more departments are starting to do things really on their own and I'm not always involved so sometimes I didn't even know things are happening and I hear like oh this department is doing XYZ and it's like that's news to me um you know I think DPW installed solar on something and I it was a small and I don't even I didn't really didn't know about it so um you know Communications not always great but I would say that things are happening you know that are using climate as a driver okay good so in that case we could just leave something like this I mean I can do some wordsmithing on it but if anyone has any suggestions what do you think about just leaving something along those lines in here Stephanie and maybe we can word Smith it together if we don't want to work on it now yeah we can I think we can word Smith it later and then bring it back so and this was just my notes from the presentation this this um executive little summary was never actually uh I think I did actually provide a copy of it but it was just my notes for speaking to the Town Council um so it was my this was my distillation of the goals in the long longer report which I really think there were too many so I like I like this sort of uh you know connecting each of them to the issues we're supposed to be looking at anyway um so anything else we should so a question around so like just reaching 2025 climate goals um I know there was like a greenhouse gas inventory done in like 20 last year maybe for the 2022 year like for the calendar year 2022 or whatnot is is there like an established process where we're going to do that every couple years or perhaps every year okay not every no not every year not every year no it'll be every probably every three years so next year there'll be another one should we put that as a goal here as a manager goal or um it's wouldn't be or would be 2025 202 which is next year year holy crap yeah yeah but we had someone in 23 looking at 22 so what we would be doing is be doing it in 26 looking at 25 so actually no it's 2026 we would have someone come to it and that would be to see if we met our Target right so we want to we want to get through 25 to see if we reached our Target y because then the next projection is 2030 yeah so any other goals I mean go ahead Steve yes well the the draft solar bylaw is working it Stace through the CRC and will come to the Town Council hopefully in the next year and that is something I would like to see the town manager ask ecac so like you had written up here before sort of um you know consult the ecac as that um solar bylaw goes through the Town Council process that's a very good point that I think that you know when that comes to town Council and gets more publicity I think that's going to be a fairly big deal so ecac how should we say this Steve um um ask us about the proposed solar bylaw um I mean we're gonna get a chance to provide input on it yeah um I'm not sure if there's an additional role for us but you know as the energy action committee that we we should be weighing in on that and acting as a resource to Town Council as councilors are deciding um gathering information and deciding ultimately how to vote on it uh how to put that as a town manager goal I guess you know draw on the draw on the expertise in the ecac as a resource for him and Town Council I like that language Steve say that again oh good I was worried that you might say it again no just rewind um draw on the expertise in the ecac as the town manager and councel are um evaluating the draft solar bylaw all evaluating the draft solar bylaw okay let me get this all down now so we ask that the um we asked the town manager I love the way word thinks it knows what I want draw on the expertise in the eak uh we ask that the how do we fix this sentence um uh we ask the town manager drawing the expertise in the inak as the town manager and Council are evalu the draft actually that's okay as it is the draft full bylaw a little bit repetitive but not bad we can always word Smith it later yeah and maybe you could just say Town Council is evaluating the draft solar bylaw but and Town Council I wasn't sure the propriety of us sort of going to the Town Council versus the town manager since this is Town manager goals not Town Council okay so like this in words is that what you meant yes fixing the the verb perhaps but getting Town manager out of the the second occurrence of town manager out of the sentence or even could just say as the town evaluates the draft solar bylaw could this will be going this town manager goals are going to be going to the council right and then the council will pick and choose from our list to put into their list that then go to the town manager well or they'll write their own thing and ignore us completely but least inut so so part of the goal here is to inform the Town Council because they're going to be reading this the counselors of what we would like to be doing and and be consulted even it has value even if it doesn't get all the way up to the town manager the final Town manager goals well and I will if I could just jump in here too about the process right now there was a meeting last night with the CRC and public was comment was being invited um at points in the meeting even more than those that were identified on the agenda so there was a um a call of order from one of the counselors and so they didn't actually do that but it may happen in the future that as they're actually reviewing the draft they're going to allow public comment during that review so I would say please don't wait for the town to invite you I would really encourage you to show up at the CRC meetings at this point I mean there may be there may be a point at which this is kind of tabled for a while because other things may come up that prior that become a priority over this because um I think the big concern has been quite honestly about a particular project that in this bylaw won't even be relevant for but I'm not sure there's full understanding about that um but there are other projects that might be coming before the CRC that they actually have to respond in a more timely fashion so I would say there are some folks in staff that aren't seeing this as a big emergency to get this byw done like tomorrow um even though it's been taking a while so I'm you know at least start coming to these and at some point there may be a pause in the process but I would say right now I would encourage someone to and maybe Steve you in particular because you've been attending to show up at the next one that's on the 24th if at all possible yes I've was hoping to get to the one last night and got there late that I'll try better to be the one on the 24th um this is probably not the time but I wanted to um ask you Stephanie about when will ecac be asked by either CRC or Council to provide input on on the draft the process um is really not clear to me right now okay to be fully honest I'm I'm really not sure I thought we had a trajectory and um I'm not clear that that trajectory is at least the one that staff had envisioned so it's really up to the chair of that committee as to how they move this along and right now who was the chair Pam Rooney councelor Rooney so I think you know at this point I would just say attend and that could be a question that's asked um but I know that this committee is identified was identified in the charge of the solar bylaw working group so and I know I mean Dwayne was your representative as chair he was your representative so technically your input was sort of um through him through his involvement in the process so and he was reporting out and you were attending so I would say that the you know the this next version of a draft you may I don't know if there's like an official point where you're going to be asked I think that you can take it upon yourselves at some point when there's something that looks like enough of a draft that you want to comment on to sort of take that make your comments and bring it to a meeting but I would say attend the next few meetings to sort of get a sense of when that appropriate time might be I'm sorry that's vague but that's the best answer I can give you at this time well good thank you Stephanie and I would agree with that I think we should take the initiative if even if we're not asked to take the draft whatever draft is appropriately and um you know complete and provide feedback on it because right now last night they were evaluating drafts with Town staff input I believe and trying to bring that along with Town counselors input so it's changing a lot from what the uh solar viar working group has done and it's fairly clear to me I guess in my opinion there are counselors who are working with other people to make changes that I believe deviate a bit from what the working group had intended when they voted to improve it so it's changing significantly and I worry a little bit if it get you know if it continues to change we may miss the boat in terms of influencing some of those changes and I just want to say those were not staff comments the version that Chris bre and I worked on was just includ incorporating the edits that the CRC was making along the way they had all been comments on the sidebar and they really hadn't ever made the changes during the course of the meeting so what staff said is we'll take this now we'll take these comments we'll incorporate them and then we'll bring you back what that looks like and that was really all we meant to do with this stage and then while that was happening another version was being created um at the same time and was presented so at this point I'm not really sure how they're going to move forward I I think that's going to be discussed at the next meeting well if I may and you could cut us off Lori or push us to another part of the agenda um I guess is is it do you know Stephanie is it going to go out to town staff like Wetlands administrator and DPW and others it has so the version the version that Chris and I most recently worked on that was presented during the last meeting was the version that was sent to um staff for review and I will say that the things that were things were moved around um things that you know there was substantial sections that were either referenced to another section of the bylaw like the storm water management um there was a whole lot of information there that as someone whose job formally was to uh sort of work with the regulatory process was not workable it was it was okay very repetitive so anyway yeah can I I want to cut this off because we need to we need to move on uh to get to the presentation on time but I want to say I'm going to I'm going to charge you Steve with with uh you know deciding or figuring out or asking the question which version should we look at and then Distributing it to giving it tell Stephanie at which point distribute it to all of us and then we'll discuss it at the very next meeting okay yeah I'm a little annoyed I would have preferred that it had come to us at the same time it went to other staff and other departments across the town that seems like that we could do that now then right yeah we could so maybe what I'll do is reach out to my town counselor and perhaps U Mandy Joe who I know is on the committee and I don't know I'll I'll do something and come back to you yes yeah we we could just take the version and do it right we don't have to wait for them could y we don't have to wait for them to ask right okay uh with that let's get back to the agenda because I think there's at least one other thing we have to get to which is the block party I think we're going to put the recycling ban request off till next week um block party is coming up and I'm not sure we have enough people to be at it so Stephanie you want to talk about that a little bit sure um so I am going to be sharing a table with the um Angela Mills the executive assistant to the town manager which is basically just kind of a catchall for the town um so at this point it just sounds like having your own table might not um might not work because Laura who was going to help out can't now so um I think who can be there you know at this point I'm not sure like I'm not even sure who can be there so either you can come and join me you know in spurts and be another you know have an opportunity be present or I was even thinking that maybe you all could even have like a just a name tag or something that says EAC ask me and if you just want to walk around talk to people you know I was trying to think of creative ways of having you be present without having you commit to being at a table who else I mean can can I ask for an update from last time is there anybody else who can be there so Steve can I won't be able to go tomorrow right no week from tomorrow tomorrow it's next week it's the 19th oh it's the 19th why did I think it was tomorrow I have no idea okay uh tentatively yes let me check okay so there might be two you know if you can do an hour each that'll get us gonna be in main so you're gonna be in I I'm not going to promise because I'm crazy busy right now but there's at least a small chance I'll be there but I want to make sure we have I would be a second person because I don't want to promise so and I did last year and but if we can get people if we can get two people to show up from six to eight and I can make it I might even bring the heat pump Booth along with me so um and I have the banner I found the banner I found some flyers and stuff um yeah I'm thinking it's going to be kind of hard to coordinate anything since we don't have another meeting then so I guess I'm inclined to suggest that we don't do anything formal we show up as we can maybe we hang out next to Stephanie maybe we go talk to the um is are the local energy Advocates are they gonna have a presence I don't know I haven't heard from them I can reach out and ask I guess you know I'll probably be there and I enjoy I enjoy the party so I'll be there and I'll stand around and talk with people if they're there but maybe we ought to not try to have any formal presence Beyond okay few of us hanging out right so this year we will not do the block party and I think honestly I do think we did we had a lot more contact at the sustainability Festival than at the block party last year so yeah um all right so we made that decision and we are at 6:22 so we have a few more minutes so uh we could do some more of the um uh the updates so Heat pumps I don't think I have much to add Stephanie you want to give us is there a staff update for that uh really quick one um so I met with c and had our initial conversation about the program um they have a goal of getting some kind of a plan together by October 6th so um we're going to start meeting more regularly and um you know at this point they still have to develop the program a bit so that's kind of what their focus is right now now that they've been secured as the um consultant administrator for that program okay we'll talk more about that next time so the climate resilience schools I don't have anything for that either um any why don't I just ask if anyone has an advisory and support update if not um I think if we have time afterwards are there any other really important staff updates uh Stephanie that you want to give the next few minutes since we have a few minutes um uh well I will just say that I had a meeting with uh climate Chief Hofer just before this meeting but there was it was really actually not so much with her specifically as with um doer uh the mass doar and um I think I would like to maybe talk about that in the next meeting because there was a lot of information that I didn't anticipate I'd hear so I would love to share some of that with the committee at the next meeting Okay cool so as an agenda item all right so in that case and there's no just to make sure advisory and support rental building efficiency bylaw solar we just talked about solar some Transportation Regional and state policy updates I don't have anything there other than the climate Bill didn't pass we talked about that last time nothing it was never voted on it died um so skipping around a little in the next few minutes uh the valley the presentation of Valley Green energy Community Choice agregation will be right at 6:30 um so are there any other EAC member updates I guess yeah go ahead Steve I can do a brief one I think Stephanie shared this with you there's a um or organization I learned about the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships they are partnering with an organization that I have heard of AC which I can't remember what that stands for but they have been working for some time now on rental property Energy Efficiency and the call here is this new peer-to-peer learning group to expand on their efforts um the energy equity for renters initiative and I guess the short thing is I will I guess volunteer to join that group if they allow me and use that as a resource and report back what I learn about what we might be able to do in ammer for rental uh energy equity for renters was that the same thing that I sent you Stephanie I think I um hang on a minute I think that was the one that wanted a um hang on a minute this is one I sent to Stephanie and then Stephanie sent it out to ecac members um late last week I think I am confused then hang on a minute check on whether um so that was from Stephanie believe so oh well I sent it to you and Stephanie when I came across it and then I think Stephanie then forwarded it to the rest of the and it was acce and uh and neep I'm pretty sure um or just let me just look up neep here you might have reached out to me directly about that maybe Lori yeah I think I did I think it was the same thing and they wanted they wanted a um a a town if you if you tried to did you try to enroll in that uh Steve because if it's what I think it was they want they wanted it looked like they wanted a town employee yeah and I may I so I've done this for them I've done with this done this with them before in fact it was about the building disclosure you know um building disclosure bylaw development and so that was you know when we were in the middle of our process before so I may join again Steve but I think I would but if I'm in it would be easier for you to get in as well I through the contact and ask it does say they're looking for New England local government staff and Municipal utility stakeholders yeah I'm also argue that ecac members are a stakeholder so yeah I'll make that pitch but I'm gonna I'm GNA definitely join as well yeah and I'm also interested in that so I for some reason I'm having trouble finding the link and I had also I sent that to Stephanie with a query about that if that was something that it would be appropriate for me to join so um I uh I wasn't sure I sort of put it off my menu but it looked very interesting and something that I wanted to be involved into so I may try to enroll too and we'll see what happens um all right so with maybe yeah sorry never mind just let's go on I'll I was wondering procedurally we can just continue I'll talk about it later okay uh well we have a minute so a minute or two so you want to finish your thought no I was just um I was just wondering if we um if technically I know we've done this in the past but I'm not sure if we're allowed to have two members participating in the same effort so um because technically that could make a subcommittee so let me follow up so I mean I will I'm definitely going to do it because like I said I was participating in the last effort or a previous effort so I would like to do this again um so you know I mean I will say that it was very sort of um it seemed to me anyway to be very municipally staffed focused when I participated last time so but I don't think that should be a problem or a barrier and I'd be fine if we did one of you joined as well okay thanks Stephanie um so with that uh I think Stephanie you want to do the introductions we'll move on to our um webinar sure we're um maybe just a tad bit early but Marina and Paul if you want to come into the room so I can take a minute to introduce you thank you so much so um so I'm really excited happy to introduce marinaa Patton and Paul gromer from Mass power choice they are the Consultants that we have been working on developing the Valley Green energy program they are the ones who completed our application have kept the three communities on task Marina I don't know how you keep everything um on track as you do it's quite um astounding really um She's So Marina is so amazingly quick with responses and I would imagine that we are not the only ones that she's having to juggle responses with so um they've been an incredible partner and Marina and Paul will be giving the presentation tonight instead of me because I think they will be able to answer your questions more completely um especially the tougher questions that we seem to have gotten at our senior center presentation yesterday so um with that I will hand it over to Marina and Paul um sure Paul did you want to say anything before I jump in no no please go ahead okay um so I'm going to be delivering the same presentation that I gave yesterday uh at the senior center so if if I don't know if anybody happened to be there for that but it'll be exactly the same thing um if you have Deja Vu that's why um but let me get that up and share my screen so let's see so does everybody see the the opening slide yes we can see it yes but your voice is a little muted like you're too far from a microphone or something I can talk if I speak up is that better that's now it's working fine okay all righty I'll speak up um so I'm just going to give this the way I give it to the public in general um even though I know you folks probably have a leg up on um a lot of the renewable energy stuff but I'm just going to give you the whole thing and then and then we can dive into questions at the end um I think that that kind of works the best so introduction of Valley Green energy um it's an electricity program from in four three communities ammer Northampton and pelum meaning it is municipal in nature it's not a private program and it is only a program that um electricity customers in these three communities can participate and nobody else can participate in it so it is a public service for you folks what is it exactly you probably know this but I'll just say um in case anyone else is listening that doesn't know a municipal electricity aggregation is the type of program it is and if that leaves you as confused as this dog then the way to think about it is a form of group electricity purchasing and it is a municipal and um regulated alternative to all the private electricity marketing that we all get in the mail over the phone and sometimes at our doors marinaa yes um don't assume that we know anything because this is being recorded and folks will listen to it and there also a couple of attendees who just want to know so great terrific good yeah good that's great um so why participate there are a few key benefits to participating in a program like this a big one is you get more of your electricity from clean sources for a price that is lower than ever sources Supply price right now so before I move on I just want to clarify one thing here we're talking about the supply price so what is that on your bill your eversource bill there's actually two charges delivery and Supply they're added together to make your total bill delivery is where eversource makes its profit and that's where they charge you for delivering your electricity and there's a bunch of regulatory charges buried in there Supply is the part of the bill where you pay for the electricity you use and eversource doesn't make any profit on that part of the bill so we're talking specifically about that price that piece of your bill so you're going to get uh cleaner electricity for a price that is lower than eversource's current Supply price now we can't always guarantee that it's going to be lower than eversource's price and that's because eversource Supply price changes every six months or less so it's always changing and we don't know what the future prices are going to be so we can't say that the Valley Green energy price is always going to be below eversource's price but it is right now another big benefit is three choices for that part of your bill so if you have uh ever sources uh basic service right now which I'll go into in a minute what that is that's one choice you're G to have three new ones through this program for that part of your bill and then a third big benefit is stable and consistent pricing you might remember a couple years ago at the beginning of the Ukraine war when everybody's electricity price swung really high that was the eversource supply price changing as it does every six months in reaction to the market with a Valley Green energy price it's a longterm 24mon fixed and stable price so it won't swing around every six months that means if there's a big spike during that 24mon period if you're participating in the program you're not going to be impacted by it just like when that big spike happened a couple years ago everybody that was in an aggregation program that had a fixed price at that time was oblivious to it now one thing I like to get out in front always is that this program is not a replacement for eversource as your electric utility in ammer and in fact you can't replace eversource aszure electric utility because they own the poles and the wires they own the infrastructure and they have a geographic monopoly so if you live in ammer you're going to have eversource as your electric utility and they will deliver your electricity and handle your billing always what you do have a choice in is your electricity supplier and that's the company that buys electricity and puts it on the grid for you there are actually three ways to choose your electricity supplier in Massachusetts or three choices three categories of choices one is if your utility which is eversource is also your supplier so I mentioned a minute ago that they're always your delivery company there's no choice in that but they can also be your supplier meaning they can go out to the market and buy electricity for you and put it on the on the grid when they're providing you with that second service they're supplying it for you that's called basic service and that's what we all have when we open our electricity account for the first time it's kind of the default it's always there for us to go back to and when you have eversource basic service you have their basic service price for the supply part of your bill that's the price that changes every six months or less that's the price that swung really high was their basic service price so that's kind of the default it's always there for us option one option two you sign a private contract with one of these companies that's marketing to you in the mail or over the phone or however they're marketing to you at BJs when you do that eversource is still your utility they're still sending you your bill they're still delivering your electricity but when they calculate your bill and they calculate the supply charge on your bill they use a price that you get from that company instead of their basic service price but everything else is the same and option three is your city or town signs a contract with a an electricity supply company instead of you but you get to benefit from it so that is what aggregation is and that's what Valley Green energy is so in that case eversource is still your utility they're still delivering your electricity but when they calculate the supply charge on your bill they're going to use a Valley Green energy price instead of their basic service price this picture is just what basic service it's another way to to think about basic service so this is whenever source is providing you with two Services supplying and delivering your electricity there on the left and on the right is you the customer receiving that electricity this is basically the same picture but it's with Valley Green energy uh in operation the right 2third of it are exactly the same as the picture we were just looking at eversource is still delivering your electricity and there's no interruption or change in their relationship to you the customer so your electricity is Flowing with no interruption they're still handling your billing if you have automated bill payments set up or automate automated anything you can continue to have that with them the change is on the left side and that Supply diagram is now in Orange and that's because we've added a new entity that's the company that amist has signed a contract with the electricity supplier they're the the one that's going to buy electricity put it on the grid for you and that company's name is first point power so I mentioned at the beginning that one of the big benefits of a program like this is you get new choices for the supply part of your bill so that's what this slide is about you actually get three choices through the program and we contrast them with ever source's basic service which is over on the right so if we look to the left at those three choices and we look at the middle one BGE standard green and you see under it it says Auto enroll Valley Green energy had to choose one of these three to be the one that you get if you don't make another Choice all the programs in the state like this work that way and there are I should add about 200 at this point so everybody has to choose one option that's going to be What's called the defaults the one you get if you don't make another choice so the middle one is that one BGE standard green and with that you get an additional 10% of your electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind when I say an additional 10% I'll add that state law requires all electricity to include a minimum amount from renewable sources all the time so you're already getting a minimum amount from eversource to meet state law requirements through vge standard green you get another 10% % on top of that the price is 13.94% and they're available by request you can choose to get all of your electricity from renewable sources by choosing the vge 100% green option that one is a little bit more expensive because buying renewable energy is a little bit more expensive um and then your other option is the vge basic option with that one you don't get any extra renewable energy above the amount required by law so you're really getting the same electricity mix you're getting from eversource but you're getting a Valley Green energy price for it so that's the least expensive option in the program again vge basic and vge 100% green are available by request vge standard green is the one you get if you participate in the program and you don't make any other choices all three of these prices are fixed for 24 months from November of this year when the program launches until November of 2026 you can compare that with ever sources basic service price which as I said changes every six months or less now on your bill you're going to see a few changes but nothing dramatic it's going to impact your supply price so um here is actually the first page of your bill we have your total Supply charge so I mentioned earlier on you have these two charges on your bill that are added together Supply and delivery so this program valy green energy does not impact your delivery charges nobody's nobody's able to uh impact your delivery charges it impacts only your supply charge and so we impact this total here that you see in yellow and also on the first page of your bill you'll see where it says your electricity supplier is you'll see first point P first point Valley Green energy on this slide here you'll see that that first point Valley Green energy line is repeated and that's because this same presentation can be used for um pelum which is also an eversource community and eversource required us to have different designations for the two communities on the bill so if you see if you're an ammer customer you'll see first point Valley Green energy amh on your bill so that first line is the one that you would see followed by the um first point Power contact information so that's what you'd see on the first page of your bill if you happen to look at your bill and then on the second page you would see again first point Valley Green energy amh and then where the supply charge itself is calculated you would see a Valley Green energy price instead of an eversource basic service price but your bill is not reorganized it's not rearranged you can see it's basically it's the same bill we're just replacing the pieces that have to do with your electricity Supply otherwise everything's really going to look familiar to you as a consumer and that's one of the nice things about programs like these they're really invisible and seamless from for consumers your primary relationship for electricity remains with eversource as it is now they're still delivering your electricity you're still calling them if the power goes out they're still sending your bill you're paying them and you're not getting any other bills as a result of participating in this program and importantly if you're eligible for any discounts from eversource you'll continue to receive those discounts like a lowincome discount or fuel assistance there's no change to those discounts participating in the program is easy because for most people it's going to be automatic the state law says all these programs have an automatic enrollment model so all those other 200 programs in the state all also use an automatic en enrollment model that's not something that's unique to this program and specifically it means that anybody with ever sources basic service so this means if you did not sign a private contract with an electricity supplier your account would be eligible for automatic enrollment in November and you should have received a notice in the mail bearing the ammer toown seal and also the Valley Green Energy logo that notice would have all the pricing information in it and it also has information about how to opt out even though this program has an automatic enrollment model you're not required to participate you can choose if you don't want to participate you can opt out before being automatically enrolled there are three ways to do that or you could try the program and opt out anytime in the future there's no penalty or fee to leave the program and eversource does not charge you a fee to return to their basic service price so some common questions what if you don't have basic service what if you signed a contract with electricity supplier what about you I haven't really been talking about you yet you will not be eligible for automatic enrollment nor should you be you've signed a contract but you can join if you want to enrolling is easy you're just going to have to take a step to do it instead of it happening automatically so you can go to valleygreen energy.org and fill out an online online form there with your eversource account information or you can call customer support and provide it over the phone you can do it now when the program's launching or if you have a contract with a great price and that contract extends for another few months or maybe you have an early termination fee and you just don't want to break your contract for another few months you can wait till your contract is done and then enroll you'll still get the program price so there's no rush there if you have solar panels you participate in community solar and you're getting credits on your bill or an incentive payment there is no change specifically there is no change to your credit or payment calculation those calculations are not tied to your electricity Supply price so you can change your electricity Supply price to a lower price for example and those credits or those payments will still be calculated in the same way they are now with no change as I mentioned before if you have a low-income discount or fuel assistance no change there either if you have ever sources budget billing this is one place you would see a change so budget billing is what you have whenever Source estimates your use over a period of time and they charge you the same amount every month so your bill does not vary from month to month to month and then every so often they check and see did you use what they estimate es imated and if you use more then you owe a little bit if you use less then you get a credit so if you have budget billing it will no longer apply to the supply charge on your bill it will continue to apply to the delivery charge that won't vary every month but the supply charge will start to vary based on how much electricity you use each month so if having budget billing apply to your whole bill meaning your bill is exactly the same every month if that's important to you then you would need to not participate in Valley Green energy so this is just a picture of the top half of the valleygreen energy.org website just to show you uh what it looks like so if you go there it looks familiar you can see in the top right corner there's three buttons enroll change your option or opt out those will take you right to the forms uh where you need to the forms where you can put in your account information to do any of those things if you're not comfortable doing that you can call customer support we use the same forms so it's not a different process but we're happy to fill it out for you if that's helpful um the website also has a calculator on it which will let you compare the program prices with the previous 12 months of eversource's historical prices knowing of course that we don't know where eversource's future prices are going but we do know where they where they just were um and there's a lot of other information on there just about how the program works and what the benefits are of it and different resources as well as a customer support uh page where you can fill out a form get the phone number um and get the email address so I think that's it I'll take a breath and stop sharing my screen um before I turn it off if you if I if I sto sharing and you think oh I should have written everything down if you don't remember anything just remember valleygreen energy.org and then everything's right there so I think that's it for me I'll stop sharing okay and I want to ask if there are questions I know I have some but I think I should take other questions first and I think that includes from our attendees we have three attendees if you have a question raise your hand three attendees sorry we have three attendees in in addition to the panelists well I can get the question okay go ahead Steve microphone um I think you said this I just wanted to confirm if an account chooses to leave the Valley Green energy at sometime in the future it sounds like we can go back to the basic service under the same terms that we have now if we're in basic service yes you can always go back to ever sources basic service it's kind of the default that's always available to you and there's no fear or penalty from the program or from ever source for doing that okay great I have a couple of other questions but I'll wait to see if yeah let me wait a minute if you if you opt out of if you if you're in eversource basic you get enrolled in Valley Green energy and then you opt out and if you want to come back in later you're not guaranteed the same price are you that's a different question right so he asked about if there's a fee or penalty for going back to eversource's basic service you're talking about if you leave the program and want to come back into the program you're not there's no fee or penalty but you're not guaranteed the program price okay so the program is not designed for people to bounce in and out all the time it's designed for people to be in it so if you enroll an opt out or if you're offered automatic enrollment and opt out before being enrolled and then you want to come back in later you might get a higher market price instead of the Pro price okay so that relates to my the question that I was actually going to ask uh which is this program then probably will not ever appear on energy switch ma.gov which is where people go to pick a different energy provider right it won't be on there if that's I'm guessing well the dpu will allow municipalities to put uh programs on there we would have to figure that out because they do it by city or town but maybe I could list it three times we have to get uh it's a whole back and forth thing with each municipality has to write a letter and it's I mean it's just impossibly elaborate but yes technically it's possible to get something on there um I will also say though their system is limited in how you can express the renewable content so sometimes when we get programs up there the renewable content doesn't look exactly the same as it does when we describe it on the program website because and and I've had conversations with them they're they freely admit that they syst is very very limited um so we can work on it it may show up someday and just with all these caveats yeah if people are going to be opting out and opting back in though the prices would have to somehow change so my guess is it's going to be pretty awkward to try to figure out how to list it on that website oh well so if you opt out and you opt back in and you're offered a custom price that would just be for you that's not something that would be on the website right it wouldn't be on energy switch M and what of that website is people compare prices right right so the program the program prices could potentially be there but the market so if you opt out and you come back you're at risk of getting a market price meaning wherever the market is at that moment yeah okay would be what the price is so there's no way to predict what that's going to be because we don't know who you are and when you're going to come back in so those prices would not ever be there they would be custom quoted at the time that you say I opted out before and I want to re join and then we would have to check and see can we get to the program price or do we get to a higher price so that would be custom for you but on the energy switch website the program there is the potential to put the program prices for the for enroles but um and and as long as you're talking about percentages of energy Stephanie I'm G to ask my follow-up question which is a little technical um but it came up today I I teach a course in this now and it came up today um not quite in this context but but if I go I think the current requirement for for renewable energy the minimum requirement is is actually 62% or something very high like that and if I look at the New England ISO and ask what percentage is currently renewable I can bring up the website if you'd like to see it it's 5% right now and another little bit of 15% of 15 or 20% nuclear if you want to include that but it's almost all natural gas right now because it's after dark and a little bit of wind and it's nowhere near 62% so and and I know that for for most providers that 62% is being made up with class three Rex right with Rex they're buy we're buying wind from Texas which it actually has a 62% green grid because it's all wind and solar um which is ironic but what does it mean my understanding for this new program is that it really is craft class one Rex we're paying for local for local green energy where is it coming from when our local when our local grid is only you know maybe at best 20% renewable on a good day so my my guess is that Paul is what she's seeing the residual mix would be my guess yeah 5% yeah so that's that's it's it's actually probably the system it's a system system right now yeah but I think there there's a really good and sort of complex question so thing is that renewable content for state requirements and for the program are based on generation over the course of the year not at any one particular moment in time so you're going to have a different mix at 5:00 P PM then you are at 300 a then you are at 7 AM different but it's never anywhere near 62% in New England it's almost always 60% natural gas correct well the other thing is that usually the number on the iso grid are New England generation and they don't include the Imports whereas the state 62% includes Imports which is largely Hydro from Canada so that's how the state gets up there the state also in their numbers counts nuclear so you've got big chunk of nuclear you've got a big chunk of Canadian hydro and then you've got some wind also some imported wind as well there's a bunch of wind that comes in from New York state so you're correct that depend depending on what you look at you're going to see very different numbers um and then just to like go one step further the program although 62% is the is well 62% of the total to address just one point none of it is from Texas and in anybody's number the 62% is all either generated New England or imported into New England that's for the 62% um but though because the most people most program and most participants in program care about the class ones we really tend to focus on those in our reporting so there's a state requirement of 24% class one and then we report the amount of additional class ones over and above that to give the program total okay gotcha that thank you very much I have been wondering about that so Stephanie I think you were next and then Steve thank you Lori um Marina can you explain the significance of the October second opt out date if people can opt in and out at any time um because we're telling people that they should be opting out by October 2nd so if you could just um address that sure yeah the October 2nd deadline is if you don't want to be Auto if you're eligible for automatic enrollment and you don't want to be enrolled at all you need to opt out by October 2nd to prevent that from happening but if you want to try the program out and opt out later you can always do that you retain your right to opt out at any any time uh for the duration of the program thank you my question I guess was was I think was answered we with Lor's uh your response to Lor's questions just a moment ago but let me see if I understand this correctly um with the vge standard green the I'm getting 10% additional and that is Massachusetts class one Rex correct that's additional and if I went with the vge 100% green that additional 76% that is also Mass class one Rex correct the vge 100% green is a 100% class one offering so it takes the 24% required by law plus the 76% correct okay that's good to know thank you very interesting okay cool um other questions Steve you Steve you have another one I do have another one um my employer in amest um has about a dozen accounts with eversource and our business office received at least one postcard um is there a way to confirm by account number which ones are eligible for vge so if you received a notice the notice the formal notice the reply card that came with it has the account number on it for the account that is eligible for automatic enrollment so you can see right there um all of them have the potential to participate whether or not they're eligible for automatic enrollment that's just maybe a choice so if they have a private contract if they're enrolled in a private contract and they're not eligible for automatic enrollment your employer could still make the choice to enroll them it just wouldn't happen automatically that said if their commercial accounts or large commercial accounts specifically many find they can get better prices outside aggregation programs so large commercial account holders typically don't participate in large numbers but the reality is any metered customer in ammer would be able to participate if they want to okay yeah I think in our case we have a couple of really big accounts and those are an outside supplier but a bunch of the other ones are small um basically residential accounts of properties that the that the employer owns um all right yeah I think those if assuming we don't already have uh different provid then they will automatically so we could check the invoice the current bills and see that it says eversource b basic service um so mostly yes uh with one caveat well two caveats one if they were opened very recently they might have been opened after the mailing list that we got from eversource was created so they wouldn't be on this round um these uh notification mealings will go out on a rolling basis now once the program's up and running so they would be incorporated into a future notification mailing so if it's very new it might not be there or if for some reason um the account holder asked eversource to block the account from being enrolled with a third party supplier then the account could be on basic service but would not be eligible for automatic enrollment um so if if you got if the notice came in the mail and the reply card has that account number on it then it's eligible if you're if you have a list of accounts and you want to just check and see if they were on the list you can always call customer support and they can they can look up the account numbers okay that's perfect thank you yep Don yeah I I probably have a really stupid question but I'm hoping I understand this better um you've indicated that if if we as my wife and I do have solar panels that generate um electricity that now uh goes presumably through eversource or however it gets to the grid that nothing will change and and I'm a little confused because since we put the tracker in in our front yard five years ago I've never gotten a single bill from eversource um and does this electricity that we generate that goes wherever it goes does that also mean I don't get a delivery charge I I don't I don't quite understand so that's my question my guess is the excess electricity you're selling into the grid is covering the cost of your build right now which is terrific that that is what happens frequently but there is going to be an underlying an underlying bill um but you're selling a lot back into the grid okay so so even though they don't send me a bill there is some underlying record somewhere of that yes yes if you have an account with eversource then yes and if your panels are not producing in the middle of the night but you have anything running electricity you're taking from the grid so they're going to be tracking that yeah no I I I understand that so so that won't change at all um our panels will continue to produce electricity and eversource will continue to apply whatever credits get applied to whatever our new charges or our new rate is through valid green energy you got it yes there's no change to that there's no change to how they're calculated the underlying calculation for your supply charge for when you are taking from the grid that will be impacted by Valley Green energy and um it will also depending on which option you participate in it will also mean that of what's on the grid you'll be buying a portion that's cleaner um if you participate in the standard of the 100% green options um but the credits will be calculated the same way and applied in the same way thanks I appreciate that you're welcome okay any questions you should get a bill it's very curious that you're not you're supposed to get a bill even if you're ahead yeah I I don't know why maybe you signed up for paperless billing and they're just make might get an email notice maybe it's going into your junk mail yeah yeah oh but you can go to the eversource website and if you have your account number you can go and see your invoices online okay great that to be sure interesting I'm not sure we ever signed up for paperless billing way back then but maybe you're right Steve maybe we did and I don't remember yeah one of your kids did it for you one of my kids did it for me that more likely yeah all right are there any other questions from the attendees Jane or Melissa if you raise your hand we can let you in to ask questions if not I think we should thank uh thank Marana and um and Paul again thank you for being here most welcome and I really appreciate it and for answering our questions anything else Stephanie anything you want to say uh no I just wanted to thank Paul and Marina for um agreeing to do this session as well was kind of a last minute add-on so thank you so much and I do want to say just for um folks that are here as attendees and they might want to spread the word as well that this session is recorded the ecac meeting is recorded and that it will be available on the ammer town of ammer YouTube channel under committees so they can watch it again if there's information that they want to go back and check right thank you again Marina and Paul thank you good night and I think we don't have too much left on the agenda just to think about next week's agenda and to ask for any other public comments so um did I miss anything uh so items for the next agenda meeting oh EAC member updates any other updates we sort of rushed through that before and if not items for the next agenda I think we have a bunch we're going to do the um we're certainly going to come back to the finalize I think the annual report uh Town manager goals we'll I'll try to send out something to everybody this week um the recycling ban request needs to be on there um and other than that I think we're just the usual reports am I missing anything Stephanie was there something you wanted to yeah I had I mean I think I can do it through uh during staff updates I just need a little more time um for that particular item next meeting um regarding the followup with the meeting with climate Chief Hofer right right right love to hear about that you can put that on as a separate as a separate agenda item if you'd like I think you probably should to remind us to it'll take a little time okay anything else we should put on anyone I guess discussion of the solar the draft solar bylaw I suspect that by the next meeting there may be a draft that I guess at the very least we could present it and then as a homework assignment ecac members could review that draft and then we have a conversation at the following meeting although if you have it before then and you want to give it out right away um we can discuss it at the next meeting too so yeah yes that's yeah okay I'll have access to the next version if you want me to just automatically forward it yeah that would be great the next version that's got compiled comments when whenever that becomes available if you so that won't be till the 24th I mean I don't know it'll be in the meeting packet I would assume the 24 for CRC yeah I'm not actually I'm really not sure if there'll be a new version for that packet or not I'll just whenever it if there's one I'll get it to you okay yeah yeah I noticed at the meeting like yesterday there was kind of confusion about different versions with different sets of comments in it yes hopefully that will be resolved by the next CRC meeting so maybe we can just put whatever you know whatever whenever you think it's cooked okay um put in the packet but hopefully by the next CRC meeting which is the 24th is that what I understand September 24th and then we'll see it right after that and have input hopefully for the next one and I guess warn warn ecac members that it's a fairly Hefty bylaw and there's quite a bit in it so when it comes available to you you'll you'll want to budget some time to read it okay thanks for the warning there'll be a quiz there'll be pop quizzes on it all the more reason to keep the annual report brief all right right um if there's nothing else then public comment I think we just have one attend left Melissa if you have a public comment go ahead and raise your hand and if not if not then I think oh uh why is my hand up I don't know but I'm s why are there two of me yeah exactly I'm not really sure oh that's weird that's pretty weird that's not me oh it's Darcy Darcy hold on I'll how are you logging hold on I'm why am I not I'm trying to allow Darcy Darcy you should be able to speak are you yeah can you hear me okay yes we can hear you go ahead yeah I just used the link that you sent out today Lori so I don't know oh I must have sent out the webinar the panelist you sent your own you sent the panelist link out I just wanted to let you all know that um on Monday at the Town council meeting the issue of the of the waste hauler proposal came up with the um curbside campost pickup and um a you know getting a contract with a huler with a pay as you throw fee structure anyway we uh the council voted unanimously to advise the town manager to issue an RFP that would not necessarily be binding but would give us the cost information that we need to move forward so um that would be something that would be really great if EC could include it in the town manager goals again um you know that has been for like the last three years and that that you know that specific goal is in the CL the carb um and it's we after 2025 but guess what we're almost there so anyway whatever you could do to help push that along would be appreciated greatly okay maybe we can um stick that on agenda for next time as well uh we wanted to talk about the recycling anyway it's not unrelated so do we want identify it as a separate item um why don't we waste huler and I don't know is it worth a SE separate item or should we discuss them both at once I think the recycling question that came up it was mostly a question that needed to be answered and then depending on how it's answered it would be part of any waste hauler just oh well no it was a little more than that it was just about it was just about the transfer station wasn't it why don't we just put it as a separate item all right yep yep yep is this your regular meeting time yes 5:30 to 7:30 now just for this at least for this semester since I teach till 4:30 okay great thank you sorry about sending the wrong link that was uh I still haven't figured out we only get panelist links we don't get the regular eak meeting yeah you only get you you each individually get your own panelists link so you shouldn't be sending that one out you can direct people to the community yeah calendar are the public the boards and committee calendar and that's normally what I do but I didn't have time to find it today so I just sent out the link I had which was oops sorry about that all right so uh now there's two of me three of me is there somebody else who would like to make a comment who else is the other Lori goldner we have Darcy and someone else is using that link that I accidentally sent out um well if there's nobody no other questions then um Stephanie why don't we uh we have a do we have a move to a journ I move to adjourn I'm sorry about the link confusion again uh so second to adjourn anyone I'll second toour see you all in two weeks I everyone thank you hi thank you